Friday, February 1, 2013

Drones to Watch Over US Highways

Drones could help human workers safeguard the 4 million miles of U.S. highways crisscrossing the country. The flying robots could inspect bridges and roads, survey lands with laser mapping, and even alert officials to traffic jams or accidents.

One such project focused on studying the use of drones recently received $74,984 from the Federal Highway Administration and the Georgia Department of Transportation. Researchers plan to spend the next year figuring out how drones could help workers as they go about inspecting and maintaining the safety of public roads and highways.

"Drones could keep workers safer because they won't be going into traffic or hanging off a bridge," said Javier Irizarry, director of the CONECTech Lab at the Georgia Institute of Technology. "It would help with physical limitations of the human when doing this kind of work."

Georgia represents one of several states considering how civilian drones could do some jobs for? transportation departments, the police and firefighters. The state is also competing to become one of several flight-test regions for the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration ? a step in the FAA's plan to open up U.S. civilian airspace to drones by 2015.

Drones of all sizes and shapes could help safeguard state roads and bridges, Irizarry said. Small drones with cameras might take off vertically from the back of a truck to help inspect a bridge. [Video: RoboBees Design Poses Intriguing Engineering Challenges]

The larger, aircraft-size Reaper or Global Hawk drones could spend hours surveying traffic conditions or carry light detection and ranging (LIDAR) equipment that can map terrain with millions of laser pulses. That could potentially replace the expensive use of manned helicopters doing the same job.

Irizarry gave the example of the spherical drones that mapped a huge alien base in the 2012 science fiction film "Prometheus" as an analogy for how today's larger drones could aid in above-ground laser mapping. He has also enlisted the help of Eric Johnson, an aerospace engineer at Georgia Tech, to figure out the best role for drones.

"We're going to look at the different divisions that [DOT] has and see how they do things like surveying, safety monitoring or using traffic cameras," Irizarry told TechNewsDaily. "Maybe they could be using drone technology for a similar purpose."

But the human factor also matters. Georgia Tech researchers will spend the next year studying the best control schemes or interfaces for human workers to deploy drones ? probably regular video displays rather than more futuristic augmented-reality goggles or technology, Irizarry said. They'll also consider how to retrain human workers if drones end up taking over some jobs.

You can follow TechNewsDaily Senior Writer Jeremy Hsu on Twitter @jeremyhsu. Follow TechNewsDaily on Twitter @TechNewsDaily. We're also on?Facebook?&?Google+.

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/drones-watch-over-us-highways-155240670.html

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Cornell University Athletics - Squash Makes Pivotal Ivy League Trip ...

ITHACA, N.Y. ? The squash teams will return to Ivy League play this weekend, taking on Dartmouth at noon Saturday before making the trip to the southeast to take on Harvard at noon Sunday.
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The sixth-ranked Big Red men's team (11-2, 2-1 Ivy League) is coming off an eventful week which started with a 6-3 victory over fifth-ranked Rochester on Wednesday at Belkin International Squash Courts. No. 2 Trinity then handed Cornell its second loss of the season, but the Big Red still figures to move up to fifth in the next edition of College Squash Association's national rankings by virtue of its mid-week victory over the Yellowjackets.
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Senior Nick Sachvie and sophomore Aditya Jagtap both won their matches last week at the Nos. 1 and 2 spots, respectively. Sophomore Ryan Todd has a team-leading 11 victories for the Big Red, primarily from the middle of the lineup, one ahead of freshman Graham Dietz, who typically competes a couple spots lower in the order.
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Dartmouth (5-5, 1-2) is ranked eighth in the nation, coming off a narrow 5-4 loss to Rochester last Sunday. The Big Red has won its last six meetings against the Big Green over the last four years, including an 8-1 decision at home on Feb. 4, 2012.
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Harvard (10-1, 2-1) is currently ranked third after defeating Western Ontario and Amherst at the Pioneer Round Robin on Jan. 19. The Crimson's only loss on the season came the weekend prior, when defending national champion Princeton earned a 5-4 decision on its home courts on Jan. 13. Harvard holds a dominating 43-2 advantage in the all-time series, with the Big Red's two victories coming at Belkin on Dec. 6, 2008 and Dec. 4, 2010. Cornell's two losses to Harvard last season were both by a score of 5-4.
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The Big Red women's team (9-2) retained its No. 6 ranking from the CSA after suffering a heart-breaking 5-4 loss to No. 2 Trinity last Sunday. Rachel Au, Laura Caty and Jaime Laird each had five-game victories, which ? when combined with Jessenia Pacheco's four-game win at the No. 2 spot ? had the Big Red one point away from its first-ever victory against the Bantams before the visitors swept the final rotation to escape with the win.
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Freshman Abbey Foster and senior co-captain Maggie Remsen are tied for the team lead with nine victories apiece, one ahead of Au and Pacheco ? the latter of which is a perfect 8-0 on the campaign from the top third of the order.
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The Big Green's women's team (4-5, 0-3), like the men, is ranked eighth. Cornell has won five straight in the series, though the last three have been decided by a razor-thin 5-4 margin. The Big Red's No. 1, Danielle Letourneau, won the deciding match in last season's tilt on Feb. 4, 2012 at Belkin. Both meetings the previous year had identical scores, including the seventh-place match at the Howe Cup.
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Harvard (7-1, 2-1) is the defending national champion, but is currently ranked second in the country after a 5-4 loss to Princeton on Jan. 13. The Crimson
has won all 18 of its matches with Cornell in the programs' history, including a 9-0 victory on Feb. 5, 2012 at Belkin. Sophomore Amanda Sobhy is top-ranked player in the country.
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Both the Cornell men's and women's teams will then return to Ithaca for a Feb. 5 afternoon match against Hobart and William Smith, respectively, at Belkin.

Source: http://cornellbigred.com/news/2013/1/30/MSQUASH_0130133448.aspx

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